Mesa

The best travel photographs are made on the fringes of the day—sunrise, sunset, and the dark of night often provide stunning photographic fodder, and thus these are the times when I’m most often out with my camera. But not all camera lenses were created equal; few pieces of glass can handle difficult shooting conditions. So when I got my hands on the new Tamron 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD MACRO lens, I knew I had to put it through its paces.

On a recent trip to Mesa, Arizona. I got up early one morning to hike the Wind Cave Trail in beautiful Usery Mountain Regional Park, hopeful that I’d get the chance to experience a perfect desert cactus sunrise. My new Tamron lens helped make the image in my mind a reality. The lens’ high-quality glass significantly reduced ghosting, flare and artifacts that are usually present with other lenses – even when I shot directly into the sun. The Piezo Drive autofocus motor worked like a charm, despite the fact that the sun streaming into the lens made it difficult for me to see the cactus and the landscape in the first place. My desert sunrise images came out tack sharp, showed incredible detail and contrast, and true-to-life colors, thanks to my new Tamron lens. Also, thanks to the Tamron’s incredible 18.8x zoom capabilities (16-300mm), I didn’t need to take any other lenses on my hike—which allowed me to go farther, faster, and explore more.